Team Hewins LLC Takes $1.40 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Team Hewins LLC bought a new stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 3,978 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,396,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,434,025 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $17,945,673,000 after purchasing an additional 184,541 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Accenture by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 13,316,028 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,089,485,000 after acquiring an additional 565,505 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Accenture by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,034,666 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $3,388,856,000 after acquiring an additional 720,647 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Accenture by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,285,864 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,544,672,000 after acquiring an additional 443,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,061,490,000. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Accenture Stock Down 0.4 %

ACN stock traded down $1.18 during trading on Thursday, reaching $305.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,510,637 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,512,347. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $284.90 and a 1 year high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $205.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.21. The company’s fifty day moving average is $324.25 and its 200-day moving average is $342.74.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 28.30% and a net margin of 10.89%. The business had revenue of $15.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. Accenture’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 11th were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 10th. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 46.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.22, for a total transaction of $1,536,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $4,208,606.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 4,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $316.12, for a total value of $1,369,747.96. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 30,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,705,516.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 28,083 shares of company stock worth $8,959,325. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on ACN shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $335.00 to $394.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $400.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Accenture in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $425.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $398.00 target price (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $381.67.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.